We were on the Fantasy a week ago and all had a blast. This is our second Disney cruise with the family. The first time was back in 2011 on the Wonder and that one sailed out of Long Beach, CA to the Mexican Riviera.
Lots of memories to be made and now, much weight to be lost!
WARNING: long post ahead!
Embarkation day:
Tons of excitement and adrenaline. My wife and I were in Orlando a few days prior, visiting WDW/USO/IOA, so we met up with the rest of my family on 2/14 at the Homewood Suites near the airport. There was a bit of stress in sorting out the rooms (they overbooked one of the rooms we were *supposed* to get) as well as returning the rental car. The car rental return was a nightmare. It probably took an hour to return the car because Budget (at least at MCO) is highly incompetent. But it finally worked out and we got a decent night's rest.
The next day we took a shuttle to Port Canaveral to arrive by 2pm and did our check-ins, finally getting on the boat between 3-4pm or so. We pretty much missed lunch at that point
Also missed the sailaway party and probably some other stuff but my wife and I were so exhausted from our WDW/USO/IOA tour, that we slept a good amount this day.
Room:
My parents wanted all of us to have rooms next to each other. They were able to find a block of 4 rooms right next to each other (6677-6683). 6677 & 6679 had connecting doors, and 6681 & 6683 also had the connecting doors.The point of this was to have everyone close by, and I can see the appeal but most of the time everyone was off doing their own thing anyway. I guess it was convenient knocking on each others' doors when we needed something LOL. I read reports about these rooms being noisy from the engines since it's in the aft. We definitely heard the noise and rumbling but it didn't bother us much. There were times when it was noticeably louder like when docking or sailing from port. Again, this didn't bother us much in the mornings when docking because we were either A) already up or B) needed to get up by or before the time the engine was rumbling (since it indicated we were docking). And when sailing from port, we were at dinner or getting ready for dinner so barely noticed it. For some people, the excess noise might be bothersome but at least for me I got used to it (maybe like white noise). Plus, we were so exhausted on port days that it was easy to sleep
Food:
The food quality, as we expected, was pretty much up there. Really enjoyed the vast selection and tried 'sharing' appetizers and main courses by each ordering a different item (sometimes two). There were a few dishes that we weren't fans of but we weren't expecting complete perfection either.
We did get to experience Palo Brunch and Remy Dinner. Brunch at Palo was fantastic (Luca served us and was funny and personable) - king crab legs, stone crab, lobster salad... *drool* We did as others have recommended and ordered pizzas to-go at the end of the meal. Luca kept wanting us to eat.
Remy dinner was quite exquisite - probably one of the fancier/fanciest places we've ever dined. The waitstaff seemed to be amused by us, as we ordered 95% of what was on the menu (and we're small people LOL). I ordered the 'American' based menu and my wife ordered the 'French' based menu along with several additional items ala carte (notably Elk tenderloin and Long Island Duck). Portions, as expected, were small but service was great and they kept the food coming consistently. We were there for almost FOUR hours! We never felt rushed either. But we did feel somewhat out of place since this place really caters to fine diners and we are not; at least, the two couples seated next to us were talking as if they were part of the 1% hahaha
The chef also came out to greet us, which was very nice, and he also poked fun at us for almost ordering the entire menu. I bet they would have been really happy if we ordered the entire WINE menu 
On that note, the sommelier came out and made some suggestions - his accent was so indiscernible that my wife, who usually can pickup on heavy accents, couldn't even understand him. Anyway, we just ordered a glass of sparkling champagne - his body language indicated to us that we were just wasting his time, so that's probably the only thing I'd have a complaint about regarding Remy. All in all, even though the posh dining isn't really our thing, I think it was good to experience something different. Would I do it again (like the couple next to us who said they'd be returning another night and were excited especially for the chef's foie gras special and another bottle of their favorite expensive red wine)? Nahhh, probably not.... but Palo, on the other hand... 
Service:
Overall, service was great on the ship. Our stateroom host, Alan, was extremely kind and did a great job cleaning up after us. Our head server, Pamel (?), server (Fernando), and assistant server (Conisha) were pretty good. Although, there were times we could read off visible frustration from Fernando's body language (I guess he felt rushed taking our orders the first couple of nights?). Conisha was really great with my nephews, spoiling them by cutting their food and hugging, talking, and playing with them. I felt like she could have been more prompt on the refill service though as we usually would get our refills pretty late after asking for them. Otherwise, they were pretty good overall. Definitely not as good as the servers we had on the Wonder (Renato and Henry). Besides our assigned service, most of the general crew members (whether walking around the ship, doing activities, or eating at Cabanas or Flos, etc) were pretty nice and had a good demeanor.
Port Adventures:
I scheduled the Castaway Cay Bottom Fishing via Disney port adventures. Unfortunately, this was canceled. I was so much looking forward to this, especially as this would have been my oldest nephew's first time out. But the conditions were "too windy" and apparently all watercraft sports were canceled. I don't think Port Adventures did a very good job in communicating this to us. They only texted *one* of the wave phones (the one we left in our stateroom) and I found out through my brother who fortunately had the wave phone that they texted. I did see a sign on the way back after the day was over saying everything was cancelled but it would have been nice to have known this earlier on. Oh well...
Castaway Cay 5k:
The 5k was fun - all I have to say is: I'm completely out of shape. I did OK for the first half mile, but then all these slo...I mean super fit people started passing me up and then I got really discouraged and took more time than I should have at the water stations...
My excuse: I don't think I've run 3 miles straight in at least over 4-5 years now... and with the time I took at the water stations, I still haven't!! My parents decided to walk it and came in last. In fact, the crew members had to go out to look for them and 'escorted' them back across the finish line. I think they may have taken a wrong turn at some point hahaha. It was pretty hot and humid out there so I was dying to get into the water after finally crossing the finish line. The only "freebies" were the bibs (and safety pins! YES!!) and cheapo plastic Mickey Ear medals. We could have bought a shirt too but didn't even bother.
Ports of Call:
We chose to do our own excursions in Grand Cayman, Costa Maya, and Cozumel.
Grand Cayman was jet skis. So much fun! My brother organized this and they kinda shafted him on the double-rider price, charging the single-rider amount each for my nephew and other bro who were riding together. I'm going to tell him to complain about that one. Also, they dropped our visit to the Starfish beach so we only saw Stingray city. This was probably due to the water/waves being pretty choppy. It was hard riding out to Stingray city and we lost track of my wife, brother/nephew for a bit before getting there.
The guide had to go back out to find them and bring them back. One of my brothers lost his GoPro too - he was wearing the head strap and it just flung off once he hit a dip on the way back. Such a shame...
For Costa Maya the rest of my family did the Chachobben Mayan ruin tour through Native Choice. They said they enjoyed it very much but the guide probably wasn't as great as some of the others. I took fly fishing lessons with Nick Denbow (Western Carribbean Fly Fishing School) and had an absolute blast - he is a great teacher and really personable guy. I felt right at home fishing out there with him. He helped me catch two fish/firsts: yellowjack and bonefish (unfortunately this one got off the hook before he could grab it for a picture). I liked it so much that I've been researching and shopping around for a fly fishing setup to hit the local beaches here in SoCal.
We got a late start for Cozumel. Decided to take a taxi with one of my brothers and his family to Chankanaab park closer to noon. My wife signed up for the Dolphin Royal Swim excursion (through Cozumel Insider) which is at Chankanaab anyway, so we had to get there at some point. I wish we would have left the boat earlier so as to maximize the time at Chankanaab. It seems like a nice park (except for the fact that they charge for *everything*). Missed the sea lion show but got some snorkeling in (snorkeling was pretty good around there). My wife swam with dolphins and got to spend time with manatees but they cut her time short probably by 15 minutes because the trainer showed up late. They definitely do NOT allow cameras in and we didn't even try. It felt so regulated and commercialized there... my wife really wanted pictures so we ended up buying the cd and spent $80~ (she 'bargained' them down to include a couple of printed pictures but I don't consider that much of a bargain. I was too tired to bargain so I let her and my brother do all the talking). Overall, she had fun but I was not impressed with the operation.
Castaway Cay was fun - pretty good snorkeling at family beach once you get further out (we saw the underwater Minnie statue!). The food lines were crazy at Cookies Too (not sure about Cookies One) but I was rushing because I thought I was going to be late to the bottom fishing excursion. Definitely not a pleasant experience with so many bodies around. After discovering the fishing was canceled, we decided to ditch the chaos and caught a tram to Serenity Bay. Phew, REALLY good call. As I expected from previous reads, they had STEAK at the grill over there, and it was delicious. They don't seem to list the grill on the map either. Anyway, it was nice getting away from all the screaming kids and crazy families for a bit. We found a couple chairs on the beach and my wife napped for a bit while I waded out and explored the sandbar. It was shallow (no more than 5-6ft depths) for hundreds of yards out. There were plenty of fish (yellowtail snapper, large mutton groupers, small bluefin trevally, and plenty of others) around too, and at least one artificial reef with a nice aquarium collection. That fly rod would have come in *REAL* handy LOL! Quite a few conches, starfish, sand dollars, and sea hares to look at. There were also some sea centipedes and even one giant sea slug we spotted. There was barely anyone out there, so we really enjoyed ourselves.
Disembarkation day:
Went pretty smoothly overall, but it wasn't really clear on what time Cabanas actually closed. Nevertheless, we were able to enjoy a quick and small breakfast before getting off the ship. The customs line wasn't too bad at all, and we caught our shuttle (same company for the return) back to Homewood Suites no problem. They let us keep our luggage, temporarily, behind the Homewood Suites front-desk and some in the back office and we mostly just hung around the lobby until we had to take the complimentary shuttle back to MCO. It was pretty easy doing it this way versus having to rent a car.
All in all, a great trip with great memories. Hmm, I'll have to try to get some pictures up, won't I?
Lots of memories to be made and now, much weight to be lost!
WARNING: long post ahead!
Embarkation day:
Tons of excitement and adrenaline. My wife and I were in Orlando a few days prior, visiting WDW/USO/IOA, so we met up with the rest of my family on 2/14 at the Homewood Suites near the airport. There was a bit of stress in sorting out the rooms (they overbooked one of the rooms we were *supposed* to get) as well as returning the rental car. The car rental return was a nightmare. It probably took an hour to return the car because Budget (at least at MCO) is highly incompetent. But it finally worked out and we got a decent night's rest.
The next day we took a shuttle to Port Canaveral to arrive by 2pm and did our check-ins, finally getting on the boat between 3-4pm or so. We pretty much missed lunch at that point
Also missed the sailaway party and probably some other stuff but my wife and I were so exhausted from our WDW/USO/IOA tour, that we slept a good amount this day. Room:
My parents wanted all of us to have rooms next to each other. They were able to find a block of 4 rooms right next to each other (6677-6683). 6677 & 6679 had connecting doors, and 6681 & 6683 also had the connecting doors.The point of this was to have everyone close by, and I can see the appeal but most of the time everyone was off doing their own thing anyway. I guess it was convenient knocking on each others' doors when we needed something LOL. I read reports about these rooms being noisy from the engines since it's in the aft. We definitely heard the noise and rumbling but it didn't bother us much. There were times when it was noticeably louder like when docking or sailing from port. Again, this didn't bother us much in the mornings when docking because we were either A) already up or B) needed to get up by or before the time the engine was rumbling (since it indicated we were docking). And when sailing from port, we were at dinner or getting ready for dinner so barely noticed it. For some people, the excess noise might be bothersome but at least for me I got used to it (maybe like white noise). Plus, we were so exhausted on port days that it was easy to sleep
Food:
The food quality, as we expected, was pretty much up there. Really enjoyed the vast selection and tried 'sharing' appetizers and main courses by each ordering a different item (sometimes two). There were a few dishes that we weren't fans of but we weren't expecting complete perfection either.
We did get to experience Palo Brunch and Remy Dinner. Brunch at Palo was fantastic (Luca served us and was funny and personable) - king crab legs, stone crab, lobster salad... *drool* We did as others have recommended and ordered pizzas to-go at the end of the meal. Luca kept wanting us to eat.
Remy dinner was quite exquisite - probably one of the fancier/fanciest places we've ever dined. The waitstaff seemed to be amused by us, as we ordered 95% of what was on the menu (and we're small people LOL). I ordered the 'American' based menu and my wife ordered the 'French' based menu along with several additional items ala carte (notably Elk tenderloin and Long Island Duck). Portions, as expected, were small but service was great and they kept the food coming consistently. We were there for almost FOUR hours! We never felt rushed either. But we did feel somewhat out of place since this place really caters to fine diners and we are not; at least, the two couples seated next to us were talking as if they were part of the 1% hahaha
The chef also came out to greet us, which was very nice, and he also poked fun at us for almost ordering the entire menu. I bet they would have been really happy if we ordered the entire WINE menu On that note, the sommelier came out and made some suggestions - his accent was so indiscernible that my wife, who usually can pickup on heavy accents, couldn't even understand him. Anyway, we just ordered a glass of sparkling champagne - his body language indicated to us that we were just wasting his time, so that's probably the only thing I'd have a complaint about regarding Remy. All in all, even though the posh dining isn't really our thing, I think it was good to experience something different. Would I do it again (like the couple next to us who said they'd be returning another night and were excited especially for the chef's foie gras special and another bottle of their favorite expensive red wine)? Nahhh, probably not.... but Palo, on the other hand... Service:
Overall, service was great on the ship. Our stateroom host, Alan, was extremely kind and did a great job cleaning up after us. Our head server, Pamel (?), server (Fernando), and assistant server (Conisha) were pretty good. Although, there were times we could read off visible frustration from Fernando's body language (I guess he felt rushed taking our orders the first couple of nights?). Conisha was really great with my nephews, spoiling them by cutting their food and hugging, talking, and playing with them. I felt like she could have been more prompt on the refill service though as we usually would get our refills pretty late after asking for them. Otherwise, they were pretty good overall. Definitely not as good as the servers we had on the Wonder (Renato and Henry). Besides our assigned service, most of the general crew members (whether walking around the ship, doing activities, or eating at Cabanas or Flos, etc) were pretty nice and had a good demeanor.
Port Adventures:
I scheduled the Castaway Cay Bottom Fishing via Disney port adventures. Unfortunately, this was canceled. I was so much looking forward to this, especially as this would have been my oldest nephew's first time out. But the conditions were "too windy" and apparently all watercraft sports were canceled. I don't think Port Adventures did a very good job in communicating this to us. They only texted *one* of the wave phones (the one we left in our stateroom) and I found out through my brother who fortunately had the wave phone that they texted. I did see a sign on the way back after the day was over saying everything was cancelled but it would have been nice to have known this earlier on. Oh well...
Castaway Cay 5k:
The 5k was fun - all I have to say is: I'm completely out of shape. I did OK for the first half mile, but then all these slo...I mean super fit people started passing me up and then I got really discouraged and took more time than I should have at the water stations...
My excuse: I don't think I've run 3 miles straight in at least over 4-5 years now... and with the time I took at the water stations, I still haven't!! My parents decided to walk it and came in last. In fact, the crew members had to go out to look for them and 'escorted' them back across the finish line. I think they may have taken a wrong turn at some point hahaha. It was pretty hot and humid out there so I was dying to get into the water after finally crossing the finish line. The only "freebies" were the bibs (and safety pins! YES!!) and cheapo plastic Mickey Ear medals. We could have bought a shirt too but didn't even bother.Ports of Call:
We chose to do our own excursions in Grand Cayman, Costa Maya, and Cozumel.
Grand Cayman was jet skis. So much fun! My brother organized this and they kinda shafted him on the double-rider price, charging the single-rider amount each for my nephew and other bro who were riding together. I'm going to tell him to complain about that one. Also, they dropped our visit to the Starfish beach so we only saw Stingray city. This was probably due to the water/waves being pretty choppy. It was hard riding out to Stingray city and we lost track of my wife, brother/nephew for a bit before getting there.
The guide had to go back out to find them and bring them back. One of my brothers lost his GoPro too - he was wearing the head strap and it just flung off once he hit a dip on the way back. Such a shame...
For Costa Maya the rest of my family did the Chachobben Mayan ruin tour through Native Choice. They said they enjoyed it very much but the guide probably wasn't as great as some of the others. I took fly fishing lessons with Nick Denbow (Western Carribbean Fly Fishing School) and had an absolute blast - he is a great teacher and really personable guy. I felt right at home fishing out there with him. He helped me catch two fish/firsts: yellowjack and bonefish (unfortunately this one got off the hook before he could grab it for a picture). I liked it so much that I've been researching and shopping around for a fly fishing setup to hit the local beaches here in SoCal.
We got a late start for Cozumel. Decided to take a taxi with one of my brothers and his family to Chankanaab park closer to noon. My wife signed up for the Dolphin Royal Swim excursion (through Cozumel Insider) which is at Chankanaab anyway, so we had to get there at some point. I wish we would have left the boat earlier so as to maximize the time at Chankanaab. It seems like a nice park (except for the fact that they charge for *everything*). Missed the sea lion show but got some snorkeling in (snorkeling was pretty good around there). My wife swam with dolphins and got to spend time with manatees but they cut her time short probably by 15 minutes because the trainer showed up late. They definitely do NOT allow cameras in and we didn't even try. It felt so regulated and commercialized there... my wife really wanted pictures so we ended up buying the cd and spent $80~ (she 'bargained' them down to include a couple of printed pictures but I don't consider that much of a bargain. I was too tired to bargain so I let her and my brother do all the talking). Overall, she had fun but I was not impressed with the operation.
Castaway Cay was fun - pretty good snorkeling at family beach once you get further out (we saw the underwater Minnie statue!). The food lines were crazy at Cookies Too (not sure about Cookies One) but I was rushing because I thought I was going to be late to the bottom fishing excursion. Definitely not a pleasant experience with so many bodies around. After discovering the fishing was canceled, we decided to ditch the chaos and caught a tram to Serenity Bay. Phew, REALLY good call. As I expected from previous reads, they had STEAK at the grill over there, and it was delicious. They don't seem to list the grill on the map either. Anyway, it was nice getting away from all the screaming kids and crazy families for a bit. We found a couple chairs on the beach and my wife napped for a bit while I waded out and explored the sandbar. It was shallow (no more than 5-6ft depths) for hundreds of yards out. There were plenty of fish (yellowtail snapper, large mutton groupers, small bluefin trevally, and plenty of others) around too, and at least one artificial reef with a nice aquarium collection. That fly rod would have come in *REAL* handy LOL! Quite a few conches, starfish, sand dollars, and sea hares to look at. There were also some sea centipedes and even one giant sea slug we spotted. There was barely anyone out there, so we really enjoyed ourselves.
Disembarkation day:
Went pretty smoothly overall, but it wasn't really clear on what time Cabanas actually closed. Nevertheless, we were able to enjoy a quick and small breakfast before getting off the ship. The customs line wasn't too bad at all, and we caught our shuttle (same company for the return) back to Homewood Suites no problem. They let us keep our luggage, temporarily, behind the Homewood Suites front-desk and some in the back office and we mostly just hung around the lobby until we had to take the complimentary shuttle back to MCO. It was pretty easy doing it this way versus having to rent a car.
All in all, a great trip with great memories. Hmm, I'll have to try to get some pictures up, won't I?
